In this episode, I welcome Austin's District 8 City Council Member, Paige Ellis, onto the Podcast.  We talk about her biggest learnings from a 2019 PeopleForBikes study tour to The Netherlands, some recent infrastructure improvements in the city, a game-changing mobility bond she co-sponsored which passed overwhelmingly in the November election, as well as the Interstate 35 expansion challenge.
 
Council Member Ellis is a fabulous example of a passionate, caring city leader who looks for opportunities to learn from the experiences of other cities, exhibits courage in taking big bold actions for the collective good, and embraces the use of small incremental infrastructure tests, tactical urbanism if you will, to move with a sense of urgency while evaluating the benefits and feasibility of more permanent investments.

Austin, Texas is making huge strides in becoming a more walkable and bike-able city for "All Ages & Abilities" and the community's willingness to fund critical improvements bodes well for future generations.

Additional Helpful Links:

Active Towns Landing Page for this Episode - for access to fun videos and photos

Austin's Active Mobility & Safety Bond (2020 Prop B)

Austin Strategic Mobility Plan

Austin's Project Connect - Transit Plan

Healthy Streets - Austin

Austin Active Transportation & Street Design Division

Bikeshare - MetroBike

Active Towns Podcast w/ Roland Kager Bike Transit Integration

PeopleForBikes

Austin NL Study Tour video

Active Towns Podcast Episodes about Study Tours w/ Zach Vanderkooy and Meredith Glaser

Healthy Streets shortie

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Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

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- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.